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11th Day Count: 4 new schools added to crowded list; 3 fall off

The first head count of the year revealed 32 of the district’s schools are filled to capacity or beyond, as defined by the state. That’s one more than last year. But to get to that one more, some schools fell off the crowded list and others landed on it.

These schools are new to the crowded list:

Boca Raton Elementary – gained 65 students

Palm Beach Gardens Elementary – gained 30 students

The Conservatory School at North Palm Beach (K-8) – gained 150 (note this is a school that is expanding in part by design)

Omni Middle in Boca Raton – gained 55

On the flip side, these schools are no longer filled to the brim:

Palm Beach Public – down 35 students

Sunset Palms Elementary – down 70 students

West Riviera – down 115

This does not mean these last schools aren’t grappling with crowding. These enrollment numbers are from the 11th day of school, but each year students straggle in to the schools and by the official statewide count comes in October, the district’s rolls could jump by more than 1,000.

A final word on capacity:

The measure here is capacity as defined by the state. When it comes to assigning students to schools and boundaries, the district’s boundary committee has been advised that it can judge how crowded a school is using a modified calculation that counts space provided by concrete portables, aka concretables.

By this measure, some schools such as Calusa Elementary in Boca Raton is less crowded than they appear on paper. By the state’s measure, Calusa has 1,080 students on a campus built for 836, putting the school at 129 percent of capacity. But the district also takes into account 12 concretables, giving it room for 1,034 students or 104 percent of capacity.